Battalist. Comanche territory
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A former war photographer, removed from the world, sits in a tower and paints a mural - his most important, absolute, final work, full of pain, blood and war. A current war TV reporter and his cameraman are in the Balkans guarding a bridge explosion. The photographer is visited by someone whose life has been derailed by a single photo frame - and in the midst of careful conversations about world art, masking grief, revenge, love, despair, and shameful secrets, both open their eyes. The bridge is still intact, but the explosion is about to happen, and the reporters will shoot it if they have time, if they stay alive in this Comanche territory where "instinct tells the war reporter to slow down and turn back... 〈where〉 the roads are deserted and the houses have turned into charred ruins; 〈where〉 it seems that dusk is about to fall.... 〈Where〉 you can't see the sniper rifles, but they see you〉..." "The Batalist" and "Comanche Territory" are two stories by Arturo Perez-Reverte, fictional and documentary, about the same thing: the dirt, blood, fear and gore of the war in Bosnia and all other wars through the eyes of men whose job it is to look and show others what they have seen. Perez-Reverte - a former military journalist who worked in many hot spots, the celebrated author of brilliant historical, military, adventure novels, translated into forty languages, the creator of the cycle of Captain Diego Alatrista, the owner of the most prestigious literary awards. He has something to say about the war - he was there, and more than once. "In any war," he says, "the same thing happens: somewhere unhappy, half-dead of fear people in uniforms of different formations shoot at each other, sitting in the trenches, smeared with clay, and some freak in a cozy office with air conditioning, smoking a cigar, far from the front line is engaged in the design of banners, the creation of national anthems and the installation of monuments to the unknown soldier, thus earning on all this blood and shit. In war, it is impossible to be romantic. In war, it is impossible to be objective. In war, it is impossible not to realize that there should be no war. "The Batalist" and "Comanche Territory" have extensive commentaries. "Comanche Territory" is published in a new translation.
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series The Big Novel